🎬 Movies My occasional fascination with the state of Disney SW

[Destian]

I was never a massive fan of Star Wars on the whole: I watched the movies when I was a kid, thought it'd be cool to be a Jedi, played some SW videogames and whatnot. However, I looked at those who would cosplay for opening nights to the prequels or dress their car up to look like an X-Wing and say, "Yeah, that's definitely not me..."

I was mostly checked out after the prequels (which I didn't enjoy at the time), so when they announced sequels, I was largely indifferent. I didn't get around to watching TFA until ~a year after its release when I watched it via Redbox. Thought it was "meh", but the next one had better make up for (it didn't) and didn't even bother watching the 3rd one.

But more than anything, the whole trainwreck of Disney SW is...something: It's astonishing that they managed to take a $4 billion purchase and basically slam-dunk it into the dumpster in such short a short time frame.

I've walked away from the franchise completely, though I'll occasionally peek in to see if there's anything worth watching or paying attention to and...nope. Not sure how they took all this fan goodwill and squandered it so thoroughly, but I feel like business/film schools will be using Disney SW as an example of what NOT to do for decades to come.

Anyone else found themselves in the same boat, especially in that they can't believe how wrong it all went?

[Random Encounter]

I loved Star Wars in my earlier years. The original trilogy has endured over the years as some of my favorite movies. I would definitely encourage anyone who hasn't seen the original trilogy to do so; they are still groundbreaking films.

I remember going to the premiere of the Phantom Menace full of hype and leaving with a great sense of "...huh?", then being bored by Attack of the Clones. At least Revenge of the Sith was a competent end to the prequels, and I still felt those movies had a greater vision in place when it came to storytelling. Sadly, I didn't even get that out of the new sequel. I wanted to like The Force Unleashed, but it was a hot mess. The sequels to it only got worse. I'm like you, where I don't understand how a company with the resources of Disney could waste such an opportunity.

I never really imagined when I was a kid that the Star Wars series would fizzle out the way it has. We have some more recent good entries in the franchise (Rogue One and S1 of The Mandalorian come to mind), but the instant excitement of a new Star Wars property is definitely gone.

[Kustom]

Outside of some of the movies and a few of the shows, I've felt like Star Wars has always been geared towards kids. We've outgrown it.

I felt the same way coming to age during the prequel years. Used to be big into it in the 90s and it just kind of faded.

Hats off to Disney for being able to take the current mess and market it SO well, because it's still a very profitable IP.

Fucking baby Yoda lives in our head rent free.

[Destian]

Outside of some of the movies and a few of the shows, I've felt like Star Wars has always been geared towards kids. We've outgrown it.

I agree (though the ultimate message of SW is one of anti-imperialism, as Lucas himself said), but the issue with the current SW media isn't so much that it's too geared toward kids but that it's just poorly written in general. The best writers create media that can be enjoyed by anyone (eg. Studio Ghibli or most of Pixar's films).

Hats off to Disney for being able to take the current mess and market it SO well, because it's still a very profitable IP.

Whatever money it's making is a pittance compared to what it could've been making were it properly managed, though.

After TLJ, the downward trajectory began: Solo bombed, Galaxy's Edge opened to a slight decrease in park attendance, toy and merch sales took a nose dive, TRoS made history by being the only third entry in a SW trilogy to make the least amount of money of the three, all future SW movies were shelved indefinitely. Recently, they shuttered the Galactic Starcruiser hotel due to lack of interest. I'm sure the prices didn't help, but the overall lack of enthusiasm toward the sequel era DEFINITELY didn't help.

The Mandalorian has been the one piece of the IP that's actually had some success, but even that's now meandering and aimless with S3.

I look at what Disney was able to do with the MCU phases 1-3 and I'm just at a loss as to why they couldn't reproduce that level of success with SW.

[Althena]

I've loved Star Wars for a long, long time. /obiwan

I have a core memory of discussing how cool of a character Han Solo was with my dad, and there's no denying that although it was "for kids" it had a universal (galaxy far far way) appeal. Even my fundamental, stick-in-the-mud asshole of a maternal grandfather adored the band in the Mos Eisley cantina. I also was very very hyped for the Phantom Menace and had all kinds of merch by the time it came out, George Lucas would have been proud. And like Random Encounter I left the screening with a sense of confusion. Very few things have given me that sense of true Star Wars, since. Rogue One was very good, and I liked the old school cowboy serial feeling of S1 of Mando, but my interest after S1 died. Obi Wan was good because Ewan McGregor is a sweet sweet bean, but it has many MANY other flaws. Overall the only other thing that really makes me think "THIS is Star Wars as it should be" was KOTOR. One of my top greatest games of all time, but only with my headcanon of Female Revan (which is how the developers of the game wrote the story, with FemRev in mind), but then Lucas himself has stated the aren't many female Jedi masters, and Lucasarts has established Revan as canonically male, so fuck me I guess.

[Destian]

Overall the only other thing that really makes me think "THIS is Star Wars as it should be" was KOTOR.

For me, KOTOR beats out the OT for the best SW story ever told and fem Rev should absolutely be a thing.

[Kustom]

I agree (though the ultimate message of SW is one of anti-imperialism, as Lucas himself said), but the issue with the current SW media isn't so much that it's too geared toward kids but that it's just poorly written in general. The best writers create media that can be enjoyed by anyone (eg. Studio Ghibli or most of Pixar's films).



Whatever money it's making is a pittance compared to what it could've been making were it properly managed, though.

After TLJ, the downward trajectory began: Solo bombed, Galaxy's Edge opened to a slight decrease in park attendance, toy and merch sales took a nose dive, TRoS made history by being the only third entry in a SW trilogy to make the least amount of money of the three, all future SW movies were shelved indefinitely. Recently, they shuttered the Galactic Starcruiser hotel due to lack of interest. I'm sure the prices didn't help, but the overall lack of enthusiasm toward the sequel era DEFINITELY didn't help.

The Mandalorian has been the one piece of the IP that's actually had some success, but even that's now meandering and aimless with S3.

I look at what Disney was able to do with the MCU phases 1-3 and I'm just at a loss as to why they couldn't reproduce that level of success with SW.

Yeah the pandemic stuff didn’t time well with the park opening for sure, but every time we went when we had season passes that area seemed to be hopping as much as any other park area.

You are right about the IP not being as profitable as could be. Disney always strikes me as the company that would axe a bad idea before they let it tarnish their name. They’ve really made a shift to quantity over quality over the past several years, and it’s hurt them. Disney plus has also been a huge offender (see Willow or some of the marvel shows) of “who the fuck thought this was a good idea”.

At the end of the day I guess the moral of the story is we need more kids movies with a wide appeal like the Ghibli movies. 👍

[Althena]

Yeah the pandemic stuff didn’t time well with the park opening for sure, but every time we went when we had season passes that area seemed to be hopping as much as any other park area.

You are right about the IP not being as profitable as could be. Disney always strikes me as the company that would axe a bad idea before they let it tarnish their name. They’ve really made a shift to quantity over quality over the past several years, and it’s hurt them. Disney plus has also been a huge offender (see Willow or some of the marvel shows) of “who the fuck thought this was a good idea”.

At the end of the day I guess the moral of the story is we need more kids movies with a wide appeal like the Ghibli movies. 👍

Mostly agree, though I would hesitate to call Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind or Princess Mononoke kids' movies.

[Kustom]

Mostly agree, though I would hesitate to call Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind or Princess Mononoke kids' movies.

Yeah prob not. 😎

[Random Encounter]

Outside of some of the movies and a few of the shows, I've felt like Star Wars has always been geared towards kids. We've outgrown it.

Maybe, but also the movies drew a lot of inspiration from Kurosawa and viewed his work from a western, sci-fi point of view. You could definitely have good Star Wars content aimed at kids, but there isn't anything to say Disney can't make good material for adults too. If they wanted to, at least.

[Kustom]

Maybe, but also the movies drew a lot of inspiration from Kurosawa and viewed his work from a western, sci-fi point of view. You could definitely have good Star Wars content aimed at kids, but there isn't anything to say Disney can't make good material for adults too. If they wanted to, at least.

True. Yeah it’s definitely a miss of George and Disney over the years. There’s plenty of material out there to make some really good shit. There was an insane amount of usable content from the stacks and stacks of books people wrote over the years for post ROTJ. Pretty sure I read them all. Could say those became what I loved about Star Wars when the prequels failed. The decision to not use any of that was crushing. Would’ve been multiple avenues to attract more adult fans. I always kind of hope they revisit the idea.

going back to what Destian said in the OP, for now I pretty much do the same.. I’ll check in from time to time and see what the studio is cooking up.. but it’s mostly nope these days. They definitely squandered good opportunities and it’ll definitely be studied down the road on what not to do with a good thing.

[Destian]

I guess Rogue One and Andor are probably the closest to "adult" SW material that we're going to get.

I've not watched Andor but heard it's surprisingly good.